Adorn Mineral Cosmetics had the opportunity to work with young Australian designers as part of Australia’s largest fair-trade festival, the Fair@Square ethical fashion show at Federation Square in Melbourne on December 2.
Perfectly aligned with Adorn’s approach to ethical and toxic free cosmetics, designers had centre stage to showcase their conscience clothing; a trend that is meeting a growing consumer demand to know the footprint behind fashion, hair and beauty.
Hosted by Em Rusciano, the event was the only ethical fashion show of its kind in Melbourne to showcase such a diverse range of ethical designs, accessories and personal care products.
Adorn Mineral Cosmetics ran backstage with its runway team, headed by Adorn Creative Director and Founder, Briony Kennedy. “2011 has seen us do many fabulous runway and high profile events, but the Fair@Square runway show sits very close to our ethos for promoting all that is ethical in fashion and beauty,” says Kennedy. “It demonstrates that we have choices as consumers and the ethical one in many cases ticks all the boxes when it comes to high quality, overall look, cost comparison and lessening the impact on the environment”.
In addition to the evening runway show Adorn held a makeup amnesty over the weekend of the festival. Their Beauty Bag Detox stall allowed visitors to dump all their old traditional cosmetics into bins and replace it with toxic free natural mineral cosmetics, getting tips, application techniques and correct colour matching from the Adorn team.
Kennedy explains, “So many women hang on to old and probably rancid makeup that they never use because they are frightened to chuck it out. We offered women the opportunity to purge products that in most cases are bad or incorrect for their skin or are well past their use-by-date. It was a chance to start fresh with a de-cluttered cosmetics bag with multi-purpose, all natural products matched correctly to their skin type”.
If recent statistics are anything to go by, there is certainly a growing awareness and interest in fair-trade to back up the claims of producers of eco-friendly products.
Research of fair-trade awareness undertaken by Mobium Group in conjunction with the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand found sales of fair-trade related products have skyrocketed to AUD $120 million in just five years, and more than 80% of Australians want clearer and simpler information on the benefit and impacts of eco-products.
Fair@Square director Susanna Bevilacqua says the Fair@Square fashion event demonstrates not only the future of fashion, but educates about why it’s so important to move to a more ethical way of life. “It’s about not just doing what’s right by the environment, but doing what’s right by those who are sourcing the materials used, and ensuring people are treated fairly for the work they do, regardless of where they live. We are determined to create events which educate about the importance of fair-trade and ethical products and help drive industry change.”
Visit www.adornmineralcosmetics.com.au to find out more.